PERIMETER INSTITUTE RECORDED SEMINAR ARCHIVE
 | The Wiki: An Environment for Scholarly Conversation and Publishing (IT tools for Science) Speaker(s): Gerry McKiernan
Abstract: 'The Medium Is The Message ... The Audience Is The Content', Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964. A 'wiki is a ... collaborative space ... because of its total freedom, ease of access, and use, [and] simple and uniform navigational conventions ... .' '[It] ... is also a way to organize and cross-link knowledge ...', Ward Cunningham, Father of The Wiki (Leuf and Cunningham, 2001, 16). Most wikis provide the user with a set of navigation or utility tools such as the ability to create and edit a page, view recently changed pages, and rollback to previous page versions. In addition, many wikis include a discussion forum for proposed page changes. Among its many perceived benefits are its potential for facilitating a more creative environment and expanding knowledgebase, and a significant ability to harness the power of diverse point-of-views in creating collaborative works. In this presentation, we will speculate on the Wiki as a digital environment that not only supports current scholarly practices, but more importantly, offers a framework for their enhancement and transformation.
Date: 09/09/2008 - 6:00 pm
Collection: Science in the 21st Century - 2008
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